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U.S. Landfills Are Major Sources of Airborne PFAS Pollution, Study Finds

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13 Aug, 2024

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

Landfills in the United States — one of the country’s biggest sources of pollution — have been found to contain large amounts of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals.”

A recent study has found that PFAS likely make their way into the surrounding environment through gas emitted from landfills, since treatment systems at the facilities are not equipped to destroy or manage the hazardous chemicals, reported The Guardian.

“The undisclosed and ubiquitous use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in consumer products has led to a growing issue of environmental pollution, particularly within the solid waste community, where the fate of volatile (neutral) PFAS in landfilled refuse is not well understood,” the authors of the study wrote. “Even under conservative assumptions, the mass of fluorine leaving in landfill gas (32–76%) was comparable to or greater than the mass leaving in landfill leachate (24–68%). These findings suggest that landfill gas, a less scrutinized byproduct, serves as a major pathway for the mobility of PFAS from landfills.”

PFAS are a group of synthetic chemical compounds used to make products that are water, heat and stain resistant, such as clothing, cookware and firefighting foam. Termed “forever chemicals” because they persist in the environment without breaking down, they have been found to build up in the bodies and bloodstreams of humans and other animals.

PFAS have been associated with birth defects, cancer, liver and thyroid diseases and other serious health problems.

The researchers assessed three Florida municipal solid waste landfills for gas and liquid containing PFAS.

“The researchers pumped landfill gas from pipes through cartridges filled with resin that captured the airborne PFAS. They freed the compounds from the cartridges with organic solvents and analyzed the extracts for 27 neutrally charged PFAS, including fluorotelomer alcohols,” a press release from the American Chemical Society (ACS) said. “The researchers also collected leachate samples at the Florida sites and analyzed them for ionic PFAS commonly found in water samples. From this data, they estimated that the annual amount of fluorine (as a proxy for PFAS content) leaving the landfills through gas emissions could be similar to, or even greater than, the amount leaving through leachates.”

Ashley Lin, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Florida, said the findings were “definitely an alarming thing for us to see,” as The Guardian reported.

A landfill in Florida. negaprion / iStock / Getty Images Plus

While gas collection systems can capture much of the landfill emissions — in some instances running it through filters or burning it off in flares — PFAS are hard to destroy and are not effectively eliminated by flares. Instead, incinerators and flares break down forever chemicals into smaller forms, sending the waste into the air.

“Because landfills are repositories for PFAS, this work indicates that vented gas from these sites should be considered in future mitigation and management strategies to reduce potential inhalation exposure and release to the environment. Some landfills burn the vapors or trap them for energy production, and the team suggests that further research is needed to determine the degree of removal these treatments provide for airborne contaminants,” the ACS press release said.

Currently, there is no accurate estimate of the levels of airborne PFAS pollution landfills create, or a proven solution.

“We need to understand that management aspect and what can happen with the different types of treatment technologies in place,” Lin said, as reported by The Guardian.

The study, “Landfill Gas: A Major Pathway for Neutral Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance (PFAS) Release,” was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

The post U.S. Landfills Are Major Sources of Airborne PFAS Pollution, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

The ring motor, a key component of the GMD, is a drive system without any gears where the transmission of the torque between the motor and the mill is done through the magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor. It optimises grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation, leading to energy and cost savings.

The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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